Field of Endeavor
The present application relates to nuclear radiation and more particularly to nuclear radiation cleanup and uranium prospecting.
State of Technology
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
The Report by The American Nuclear Society Special Committee on Fukushima” “FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI: ANS Committee Report, March 2012, Revised June 2012,” provides the state of technology information reproduced below.
IV. Accident Cleanup
The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPS has resulted in significant challenges for accident cleanup and waste management. These issues include processing the large volume of contaminated water, debris, soil, secondary wastes, potentially damaged spent fuel within the reactor SFPs, and damaged fuel and fuel debris within the reactors and primary containment structures. Progress has been made in cooling of the reactors, and all the units have reached ambient pressure and temperature conditions, i.e., cold shutdown. Mid-term to long-term waste management issues will continue to be the major technical issues that must be overcome as recovery actions continue toward an acceptable end state. TEPCO (see [13] for TEPCO information on cleanup status) has established a road map that describes elements of the site cleanup and water management, and it is currently developing more detailed mid-range to long-range plans. There are also waste management challenges associated with                treatment of contaminated water and the resulting filter and equipment wastes        storage and disposal of secondary wastes, contaminated soils, vegetation, and debris        decontamination to allow reinforcement of the weakened structures and installation of cooling and gas management systems        installation of new secondary containment structures and material-handling equipment.        
The Report by The American Nuclear Society Special Committee: “Fukushima, FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI: ANS Committee Report, March 2012, Revised June 20” is incorporated herein by this reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,445 for a uranium prospecting method provides the state of technology information reproduced below.
The present invention involves a procedure for mapping the present position and the migration path of uranium or other radioactive material. The procedure involves obtaining a plurality of field samples from a geometric pattern over the surface of the ground. Specimens of quartz or other material exhibiting the thermoluminescence phenomenon are then isolated from the field samples and a thermoluminescence curve is run for the specimens. The specimens are then irradiated at several known levels of radiation, and additional thermoluminescence curves are obtained at each radiation level. From these curves, the amount of natural radiation received by the specimens is determined by comparison of the thermoluminescence curve of the natural specimens against the plurality of curves obtained after subjecting the specimens to known levels of radiation.The present rate of radioactivity for the samples is then determined by placing radiation dosimeters either in the field on a pattern comparable to the pattern used to obtain the field samples, or alternatively the dosimeters may be placed in the samples themselves. The thermoluminescence from the dosimeters is then measured to obtain a value for the present radioactivity of the samples.The total amount of present radioactivity from the samples and the amount of gamma radiation can be determined by using both an unshielded and a shielded dosimeter at each field location or in each field sample. The shielded dosimeter will exclude the alpha and beta radiation while allowing the gamma radiation to be measured.The above steps provide information for each sample point regarding the total lifetime dose of radiation, the present total rate of activity, and the present rate of gamma activity of each sample. This information makes it possible to correlate present activity with historical activity to determine or direct further prospecting activities.
The journal article, Laser comminution of submerged samples, by R. Mariella, Jr., A. Rubenchik, M. Norton, and G. Donohue in JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 114, 014904 (2013) provides the state of technology information reproduced below.
FIG. 1 is a photograph of the experimental apparatus, showing the multi-cm path that the laser pulses must pass through water in order to reach the sample surface. Because we expected debris and rubble to absorb UV light more strongly than near-infrared or visible, and because water is more transparent to the 351-nm light, we used 351-nm laser light, directed onto samples of rock [quartzite, a coarse-grained metamorphic rock derived from sandstone, see FIG. 3, or concrete, see FIGS. 2 and 4, as targets that we submerged within 700 ml of de-ionized water.
The journal article, Laser comminution of submerged samples, by R. Mariella, Jr., A. Rubenchik, M. Norton, and G. Donohue in JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 114, 014904 (2013) is incorporated herein by this reference.